


A Sweet Halloween Hustle

by Mikey2084



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: F/M, Family, Fluff and Humor, Halloween fun, Lots of candy, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27191888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikey2084/pseuds/Mikey2084
Summary: Watch as a bunny doe parleys a few treats into something she really wants.
Relationships: Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde
Comments: 15
Kudos: 46





	A Sweet Halloween Hustle

Disclaimer: Zootopia and all related characters are owned by Disney. All other characters, product names, trademarks, and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

…..

"Yay!" screamed a dozen kits as they tumbled out of one of the ten Hopps' family vans and trucks now parked in front of their large warren building.

Nick shook his head as he turned the van off and watched as the full kerfuffle of over seventy-five sugar-crazed young kits, along with teen escorts, make a mad dash for the front door.

"So, this is what you guys do, like every year?"

"Yup," replied Judy as she fished through her rabbit-themed bag of candy. "Ooh, look, a vanilla kiss. Yum!"

Watching his bunny run her paw through her bag of treats, Nick picked up his fox-shaped bag and had to chuckle. He'd only gone trick or treating a few times before his dad had died, and most of his 'fun kit activities' turned into hustles to help his mom. He remembered one Halloween he spent hawking paw-warmers near Tundra Town while all the other kits were collecting candy or threatening to do tricks.

"I prefer the Carrots flavored kisses, myself."

Judy looked up from her bag with a smile and, reaching out, pulled her foxy boyfriend in for a kiss.

"Mmmmmm." And then breaking the kiss, she held her cheek against Nick's and whispered, "I kind of like the fox flavored ones, too. Maybe a little more taste testing after the candy exchange?"

Enjoying the fur to fur contact, Nick whispered back, "Oh, yeah. I'm all over… Candy exchange, what's that?"

Judy leaned back with a confused look on her face, "Uh, it's what you do with your siblings right after," Judy put a paw up to her muzzle, "Oh, no. You were an only kit. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, what difference does having siblings make?"

"Come on, and I'll show you."

Grabbing Nick's paw, Judy nearly skipped as she led her fox into the house, through the kitchen, and to the bedlam that used to be the dining room.

Over the last ten months' worth of visits to Judy's home, Nick had gotten used to the controlled chaos that was a Hopps family event. Hundreds of bunnies, adults, kits, cousins, aunts, uncles, guests, it was always a crowd and usually loud with excited voices. How Bonnie managed meals and kit parties, he would never know, and what the heck was going on right now, he couldn't guess.

All the kits were spread out across the room, sitting at the tables around the perimeter or cross-legged on the floor in the large empty space in the middle of the room, and every one of them had a pile of candy they were sorting through sitting in front of them.

"The Candy Exchange," Judy intoned with a sweeping gesture of her arm. "The last bastion of pure bunny kit capitalism left on earth.

"Kits don't always like the same treats, so here on the floor, they trade everything: chocolates, caramels, crème filled candies, candy bars, hard candies, mints, non-chocolate treats, and of course, my favorite, the licorice pit."

"Whoa…"

"Yup, watch out for the candy bar traders, when they get down to just Zagnuts, it's, well, I heard last year Mom had to send them all to bed early.

"Okay, think big, stay positive. Never show any sign of weakness. Someone wants your Almond Joy, go for their Cadbury Crème Egg. They try to slip you some Good and Plenty, demand their entire supply of Mike and Ikes. No mercy, got it?"

Nick gulped, "You're serious."

"As a rotten caramel apple, yes." And then pointing toward the center of the room, "My spot is over there, but," turning her fox so he was facing her, she whispered, "you need to stop wagging your tail, the kits know your tells, and they don't take prisoners."

Judy led her fox to the very center of the room, and sitting down, she patted the floor next to her for Nick and then dumped most of her bunny-bag of treats out in front of her.

Nick grew up hustling and knew how to barter, but the din and hue of what was going on around him made him rethink who was slick and who was dumb in his current relationship.

"What have you got?" asked a seven-year-old doe.

Nick dumped out his fox-bag and spread the evening's take on the floor for the doe to see. "You're Sarah, right?"

"Uh-huh, I'll trade you for the Candy Corn, all your Nerds, and… the full-sized 3 Musketeers bar."

Nick shook his head; negotiating a trade was his bread and butter, "I don't know, I like 3 Musketeers, what will you trade me for just the Cady Corn and the Nerds?"

Sarah narrowed her eyes as she took the fox's measure and then whispered, "There's only one in the room, and I know how to get it."

Nick leaned in.

"A blueberry crème truffle."

Nick's eyes went wide, and his tail started to wag.

"Nick!" came a whisper-shout from his girlfriend, but it was too late; the damage was done.

Sighing, Nick gathered up the large candy bar and the rest of what Sarah asked for and gave it all to the doe. "I'm trusting you."

Sarah bounced away with a wink.

Turning back to his few bits of remaining candy, Nick looked at Judy out of the corner of his eye in time to see her roll her eyes.

"What?"

Leaning over, Judy kissed her fox, "You're cute, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Nick watched Sarah bounce around the room, stopping a half a dozen times to trade up his small bounty into a double armful of treats. Once she finished her last trade, she made her slow victory walk over to where Nick was sitting and then, standing over her trading partner, said, "One blueberry crème truffle, and some red licorice whips because you were the only one in the room that had a full-sized candy bar."

Nick had been totally owned.

"Not a word, Carrots. Not a single word."

"Mm-hmm," replied his smirking bunny, "You know, I like red licorice…"

Nick sighed, the candy bar had been the bulk of his stash since it was just by chance that Judy had an extra fox-bag for him, and he hadn't really tried to get as much loot as the rest of the kits, so maybe, he could redeem fox nation and turn the licorice into something good.

"Okay, what have you got?"

"What? I'm your girlfriend, the love of your life…"

"Yeah, sure. Fool me once, and all that. What have you got?"

Judy didn't have much either. She'd hung back with Nick most of the time, so she only had a couple of things he didn't and certainly no full-sized candy bars.

"Corn nuts?"

Nick shook his head.

"Coconut Neapolitans?"

"Nope, not a fan of coconut."

Judy chewed on her lip. She wanted the red licorice whips, she wanted them bad, but was she willing to part with what it would cost her to get them?

He'd won, years of hustling, and Nick knew whatever she was holding back was good, and pretty soon it would be his. Picking up the licorice, Nick faked as if he was going to open it up and eat it himself when–

"Stop! I'll trade."

The room went quiet. Judy looked around, and knowing she'd lost, dumped the last treat from her bag onto the floor in front of Nick.

Nick gasped, as did all the bunnies in the room. Bonnie even whipped out her phone camera.

"Cracker Jack," whispered Nick, "Wow."

"I want the candy necklace, too," huffed Judy.

"Done!" fist-pumped Nick as he stretched the candy necklace over Judy's head, pushed the licorice toward her, and… claimed his most favorite treat growing up.

"Yum."

"Open it up, Mr. Nick, what prize did you get?" asked Sarah.

Nick smirked at Judy as he tore open the box of treats and fished out a small plastic bag.

"I like the rub-on fur tattoos, and the mini paw-clappers are fun too."

Nick tore open the opaque plastic bag, and something a lot heavier than a plastic whistle or a spinning top dropped into his paw.

"A ring?"

Looking up at his smiling bunny, Nick's muzzle fell open. He was holding a rose gold band with two colored diamonds set flush in its surface, one purple and one green.

"Carrots? Judy?"

Judy picked the ring out of Nick's paw and then getting on one knee, she looked her fox in the eyes and said, "Rabbits don't really do rings, but I know foxes do, and I wanted to do this right for my fox.

"Nicholas Piberius Wilde, will you make me the happiest doe in the world and be my mate?"

Nick looked around at all the smiling, nodding rabbits in the room and then back to the most amazing bunny in the world and said, "Yes, one-hundred percent, yes!"

…..

A/N: I didn't know until I looked that Cracker Jack stopped including prizes in 2016 – bummer, and yes, a candy exchange was a thing in my family, maybe not as ruthless as my 'Trading Places' shoutout, but lively none the less. 😊

Happy Halloween 2020

~Mikey


End file.
